It’s time for a proper GoGoMachRocketSheep blog update! It’s been a while.

The state of (my) comics

I’m not going to be posting my comics online anymore, AS comics. What I discovered is that certain people are taking comics and making videos out of them, and then getting hundreds of thousands of views and likes and growing an audience that uses my comics, but is completely unattached to me. It’s happening on tiktok, youtube, and who knows where else. It’s happening to a lot of cartoonists.

On one hand, I’m glad people are liking my comics, but on the other hand, this doesn’t help me or my cartooning efforts in any way- I’m not growing a readership, I’m just contributing to the content churn. So my comics will no longer be posted as .jpg’s and .png’s for some scraper to come along and effortlessly rip it off.

What I WILL be doing is posting individual comic strips AS read-out-loud short videos. They’re lots of fun for me to make, I think they’re lots of fun to watch, and they’re five times more annoying to rip off. Alongside that, I’ll be working on story comics, but only selling them as books or as ebooks, and only posting portions of the story for promotional purposes.

I’d rather have a small audience that actually reads my comics and supports my work than a large audience that sees my comics as just one more cheap laugh in an endless scroll of disposability. By the way, if you’re reading this blog post, I consider you one of the good ones! 😉

The state of (my) education

For the last four years, I’ve been a full time student taking classes, doing internships, writing papers, building projects… and just last week I finally finished all the requirements to become a teacher. All that is left to do is walk across the stage!

Now, my creative priorities are shifting. Comics have been a way for me to stay sane in the middle of a pretty anxiety fueled time. When I moved to Saskatchewan, I said that the blue “GoGoMachRocketSheep” comic book would be the last physical book that I’d ever make… and since then, I’ve made “Space Chuck: Liturgy”, “Robbie and the Bot”, “Tips”, “Greener Grass”, one more GoGoMachRocketSheep book on the way, and two more books worth of comics that I am forcing myself NOT to make into physical books. I am saying this because I’ve gotten used to comic making as being the main part of my creative repertoire.

However, when my big internship hit and I got a three month taste of what it is to be a teacher with unit planning, grading assignments, report cards, and parent teacher interviews, my comic producing ground to a halt. I didn’t really have time to do it… but deeper then that is the reality that teaching is a profoundly creative endeavour (or rather, it CAN be, if I choose to make it so). So while I will definitely keep making comics, I’m not sure it makes sense to have it be my main creative pursuit for the rest of my life.

The state of (my) writing

My brother recently gifted me a “freewrite” which is essentially a digital typewriter. I’ve been using it this semester to write my final papers and it’s made the process so much more satisfying and efficient. In fact, this VERY BLOG POST was written on it!

Because my university career is coming to an end, I will (once again) lose the venue for written reflection and self-expression. I say once again because when I was a pastor, writing was basically my job: I had multiple times every week where I could hone my thoughts through written word and express them to other people as a sermon. As a student, the same thing: I’d write papers and hand them in, or do class presentations! But as I transition into being a teacher, I’m not sure it’ll scratch that writing itch. You might be thinking “You’re a teacher. You’re going to be lecturing every day” but no no no my friend- teaching isn’t about lecturing… at least, it isn’t the type of teacher I want to be.

So where will I write? Well, I’d like to make efforts to have this blog be my writing repository. Maybe I’ll write short stories, maybe I’ll write essays, who knows? Maybe I’ll just write scripts for youtube videos. I just know I’d like to free up creative space for that pursuit.

The state of (my) art

Of course, I still want to push myself to become better as an illustrator and as an artist. With regards to illustration, I challenged myself to let 2026 be a year where I draw for at least two minutes every day and post the drawings as a youtube short. I’ve been having so much fun doing it that I’ve kept it going for 70 days! It’s been a fun way to work on my drawing skills and to grow a bit of a community of internet randos sharing their respective geekdoms over on youtube.

As an artist, my last class at university has really challenged me to think of what it means to be an arts educator, and an artist, who embraces principles of ecojustice. The class was a baby-step into the world of art NOT as an act of creative consumerism, but rather as a possible venue for radically changing the world. I need to look into this further- I feel like this is what has been missing from my artistic endeavours.

TLDR: the summary

You won’t see my comics posted as simple images anymore… But you will see them posted as short videos, as printed books, and as ebooks. If you’re reading this blog, you’ll see a lot more written blog posts of my creative writing! It’ll either be posted as text, or as videos, or both. The format of this website will likely change to reflect my new priorities. The front page will display 1) my new video comic 2) my new art video and 3) the newest blog posts. I hope that you’ll continue reading my stuff and supporting my journey as an artist!

Thanks for reading! 😀